


in the night-time we are found

by cassanabaratheon



Series: I exist in two places, here and where you are [1]
Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: 1970s, Established Relationship, Extramarital Affairs, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25620025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassanabaratheon/pseuds/cassanabaratheon
Summary: He watched a shiver pass through her at the drop in temperature and he wanted to run his fingers down that exposed skin, to feel her warmth and softness. He didn’t though, perhaps later when the sky turned black and alight with stars, and it was the last few moments they could have tonight before parting.
Relationships: Claudia Tiedemann/Tronte Nielsen
Series: I exist in two places, here and where you are [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893649
Comments: 11
Kudos: 14





	in the night-time we are found

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from good love by bat for lashes

13th August 1977

Dusk was settling in stark hues of vibrant pinks, indigos and dark violets, drawing out a breeze that had been longed for as a relief from the sticky, summer heat of the day. Her emerald-green blouse was undone to the centre of her chest and her skin seemed pale blue in the dying light. He watched a shiver pass through her at the drop in temperature and he wanted to run his fingers down that exposed skin, to feel her warmth and softness. He didn’t though, perhaps later when the sky turned black and alight with stars, and it was the last few moments they could have tonight before parting.

He focused instead to look out at the trees, sitting propped back on his hands whilst she lay by his side on the blanket, observing him quietly through half-lidded eyes. It was a spot they knew well, a little clearing at the edge of the forest that had been once a childhood stomping ground and now a place where they could meet without much fear of being discovered. A place for them alone.

Around them, nocturnal insects and animals twittered and rustled in the settling dark and he swatted something that buzzed close to his ear. Her lips quirk as she turned her sight back to the darkening sky and the emerging stars.

Then his fingers were against her left knee, brushing her skirt away so he could settle his hand there. His palm was hot and he rubbed his thumb down an angled line, around five inches long, left to right.

“Remember that day at the lake, when you got that scar?” He spoke softly, not looking at her but at his hand, tracing that scar he knew so well that he could pinpoint it exactly even when he couldn’t see it.

“I remember you carrying me home.”

He raised his gaze to hers and he felt his breath lock tight in his chest. God, she was mesmerising with those eyes of hers.

“Not before Ines used my shirt as a bandage.”

She let out a soft huff of a laugh and he gripped her knee gently.

“That was the summer before things changed.” His voice sounded strained, heavily wistful, and everything stilled between them. 

He used to take off his wedding ring when they met, tucking it out of sight in the glove compartment, but its absence was more pronounced then. She didn’t feel an extreme sense of guilt, not like him, (although sometimes, when found herself face to face with Jana who remained as friendly to her despite Claudia’s suspicion that she knew - she must have - there was an icy twinge of guilt then).

She found it ridiculous, the pretence of pretending, so, he wore it on his hand and sometimes she would look at it but not as much as he did at the beginning when all this started. When his hand was in her hair, drawing her head back so he could drag his mouth along her neck, he saw it in the corner of his eye or when her fingers laced with his, he felt it dig against her. He never said anything but she supposed he either wished it wasn’t there at all or that, perhaps, there would be a similar one enclosed around her own finger.

He did this, she reflected sadly, reminisce over the past. She chose not, to face the future instead of a past that could not be changed. But when he looked at her with such longing, she couldn’t help but soften a little.

He saw the stiffness ease from her, her head inclined to the right in gentle consideration. It’s her own way of telling him she understood, of course she did, and that it is of no use to wish for something different. 

Slowly, he laid back down next to her and, after a few moments, she rose up on her arm so she could half-lean above him and grazed her fingers against his chin, turning his face towards hers. Instinctively, he brushed her hair that fell in long, soft Fawcett-like waves back behind her ear before resting his hand against her jaw, thumb stroking affectionately across her cheek. She nudged at his palm with her nose, planting a kiss at the centre and his heart leapt at the gesture.

He slid his hand to the nape of her neck and that was all the encouragement she needed, bending her head down to brush her lips teasingly over his. He could not help the smile that kicked up at the corners of his mouth. His other hand moved between her shoulder-blades, pressing a little and she moved over him, straddling his waist. She held his face with her hands, kissing him languidly as his hands moved to her hips, squeezing as her mouth parted and he ran his tongue across her bottom lip.

She broke the kiss to sweep her hair over her left shoulder and he took the opportunity to skim his lips down the length of her neck, delighting in the sound of her taking in a breath as he nipped lightly at her pulse then licked over with his tongue. She leant her head back so he could continue to kiss down the strip of skin of her chest he had been contemplating at earlier, at the freckles he knew were there. Her breathy exhale made his head spin and her hands, which had come up to rest on his shoulders, now clenched fistfuls of his shirt. He parted her blouse and smoothed his hands over her stomach, her ribs, luxuriating in the softness of her. She shuddered above him, kissing him harder.

Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her down and she let out a small ‘oh’ of surprise against his ear, arms around his neck as he settled them on their sides. They could barely see one another now, enveloped in darkness with the faintest moonlight coming through the trees. But he didn’t need sight to know her and neither did she. Her fingers ran through his hair as her right leg came up to hook around his hips, bringing him closer. One of his arms was curled around her, splayed out on the small of her back whilst the other bunched her skirt up around her waist. She moaned quietly into his mouth as he ran his hand down the back and then the inside of her thigh, fingers kneading wonderfully.

There was a flurry of hurried hands, deftly undoing his belt, both barely breathing in anticipation. The momentary fumbling with the foil packet mattered little when her mouth was back on his, messily and hungrily kissing, panting sharp breaths. He twisted his position, once more beneath her and then she surrounded him, a breathtaking wet-heat that made his mind go blank with lust. His eyes fluttered closed for a moment before opening to stare up at the stars, at her, now cast in the faintest blue-silver glow, regarding him with quiet intensity as her hips rolled slowly. He uttered her name in a guttural, desire-raw whisper and she, angling her head back to the sky, breathed out his into the night. 

///

When he switched on the engine of his car and flicked on the headlights, they both squinted at the glare that pierced the darkness that they had grown accustom to the past few hours. It was a jolt back to reality that it was late, past midnight to be exact when he checked his watch, and they both had respective homes to return to. Still, that did not stop him from reaching out to tug on her hand so she was flushed against him. She rolled her eyes even as she smiled into the kiss, sighing softly as his hands weighted on her hips.

“It’s your birthday,” he murmured after the kiss ended, bringing her hand up to press his mouth to her wrist. She made a vague, muffled noise against his shoulder where her head lay.

“It was your eighteenth when you got that scar.”

She settled her free hand against his chest, to feel the steady thumping of his heart beneath. She recalled the way he had brushed the tears she tried not to show away when the pain came after the shock of the fall. He had given a light kiss over the bandage later that evening and had be so careful, encircling her in his warm embrace, when she asked him in such a soft, small voice, to stay with her. 

She sighed again but with an edge of heaviness and she shifted her shoulders, indicating for him to let go. His hands fell away and it would have been a lie if she said she did not feel the loss of contact. Nevertheless, she stepped back and caught the sad look he cast her. “I must go,” she said quietly, placing further distance between them.

“Will I see you soon?”

The hopeful note in his voice made her heart ache.

She nodded instead of replying and headed to her car, quickly opening the door and sliding in. Before she set off, she cast a final look back – he had lit a cigarette, the grey smoke curling and twisting up in the air and he was watching her as she knew he would be. She offered a tiny parting smile to which he titled his head and raised his hand up briefly.

A scattering of sublime moments and countless of bittersweet farewells after - and it was if they were constantly saying goodbye. They could never be more than this, she thought with some regret as she drove away, seeing him disappear out of the rear-view mirror. But it was still something and better than nothing at all.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are much appreciated :)


End file.
